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OhioChick

(23,218 posts)
Fri Apr 5, 2013, 02:29 PM Apr 2013

Millionaires Got $80 Million in Jobless Aid in Recession

Apr 4, 2013 8:00 PM ET

The U.S. government paid almost $80 million in unemployment benefits during the worst of the economic downturn to households that made more than $1 million, including a record $29.9 million in 2010, tax records show.

Almost 3,200 households -- about 20 percent of them from New York -- that reported adjusted gross income of more than $1 million received jobless-insurance payments averaging $12,600 in 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, according to IRS data compiled by Bloomberg. Those payments outpaced the total incomes for about 25 million U.S. households.

The $80 million represents less than 0.01 percent of this year’s $845 billion projected deficit. Yet the unemployment aid to millionaire households underscores the lack of means-testing in some federal aid programs as the Labor Department reports new jobless figures today. The aid also is a reminder of the difficulty of reining in spending.

“So many people are taking advantage of government support that they probably feel like, why shouldn’t they take advantage of it, too?” said George Walper Jr., president of the Spectrem Group, a Chicago-based market-research and consulting firm that tracks the number of households worth more than $1 million.

More: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-05/millionaires-got-80-million-in-jobless-aid-in-recession.html

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Millionaires Got $80 Million in Jobless Aid in Recession (Original Post) OhioChick Apr 2013 OP
They paid into it. So what? N-t Logical Apr 2013 #1
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